A study was done in the 1960’s on kids. They called it the marshmallow experiment. You may have heard of this experiment. They gave kids a marshmallow and told them that if they could wait until the researcher came back, they could have another marshmallow. Even though I titled this, “Don’t Eat the Marshmallow,” the kids actually could eat the marshmallow if they wanted to.
This experiment has been repeated several times now. You can watch a cute video of some of the kids here.
The study is about delayed gratification. When the researchers followed up with the kids as they grew up in life, they found that the kids who were able to delay gratification (wait for the second marshmallow) tended to do better in life.
Will Power or Something Else?
But I’m not writing about delayed gratification. What is particularly interesting is that another follow up study was done to observe how some kids were able to wait while others ate the marshmallow right away.
The researchers noticed a pattern. The kids who distracted themselves by doing other things were more likely to wait for the second marshmallow. for example, the kids would tap their fingers on the table, spin in the chair, or in some cases, play under the table.
The kids who sat staring at the marshmallow the whole time were pretty much doomed to one marshmallow.
Our Calling
So how is this related to pursuing our calling?
Well, if we are moving from our average life to an awesome life living our calling, we’re going to have to make some changes. And change is uncomfortable, awkward, and hard.
The good news is that we can learn from the marshmallow experiment. The tool we gain is called ‘distraction’. When we find ourselves dwelling on things from which we want to stay away, we can distract ourselves and think about other things.
Maybe we have to give up some of our current life to have time for our new life. We might need to watch less TV and spend less time with some of our friends so that we can spend more time learning a new skill or helping at the local soup kitchen.
As we work towards our goals, we may find ourselves wishing for our previous life. This is the danger spot right here because this wishing can turn into an obsession. Then we’ll likely go right back to our old average life. Our dreams will go up in a puff of smoke.
One way to stay distracted from dwelling on all that we’re missing in our old life is to stay focused on the new life. We keep that vision in our mind of how things will look when we have arrived at our destination. We stop focusing on the “one marshmallow”, and instead envision what it will be like to have “two marshmallows.”
What about you? What is your “marshmallow”?
